Boots and Sainsbury’s recall counterfeit Colgate toothpaste

LONDON British retailers Boots and Sainsbury’s have recalled thousands of tubes of counterfeit Colgate toothpaste.

According to published reports, the counterfeit products were labeled Colgate Cavity Protection and came in 100ml tubes. They were sold between Nov. 28 and Dec. 5.

While the retailers believe that the fake Colgate toothpastes do not represent a public-health risk, Sainsbury’s reportedly wrote to 17,000 customers and put recall notices in stores. The supermarket chain was unable to determine the precise number of counterfeit products sold because they became mixed in with genuine product.

Meanwhile, Boots reportedly contacted its customers who use loyalty cards and put notices up in stores. Boots has estimated that a maximum of 235 counterfeit tubes could have been sold but it believes the actual number to be far lower, according to published reports.

Last year in the United States, batches of fake Colgate were stripped from store shelves due to concerns that they may contain the chemical diethyleneglycol, which is an ingredient in anti-freeze.